This is the first Beginners Contest I've authored, and it was a sudden plan when Deb and I decided I should conduct one before the WSC-WPC fever sets in.

I hate creating Classics (like many Authors), but since I had no choice, I pushed myself and created 3 Classics (Classic 1, 2, 3) each having a different kind of solve. I think I got tired then and created a simple fourth Classic with the 'triplets' theme :-)

Trio Sudoku: It was my personal favourite. It took me longer to create with a 1~9 diagonal theme than any normal Trio, but I was satisfied with the puzzle. It had a nice solve and I'm sure all of you enjoyed solving this :P

Diagonal Sudoku: I like Diagonal Sudoku with 3 blank rows, it forces solvers to put in those digits using the diagonal. Maybe next time I'll try 4 blank rows!

Extra Region Sudoku: Nothing special here, just a pleasant design to see (I think!) and a simple symmetry of givens. I didn't want too many digits to be filled using Classic rules, and I think that stands true for this puzzle.

Arrow Sudoku: There must be something to test solvers, right? I admit the Arrow was not trivial, it had a tight opening in the bottom-left of the grid, but after that, the solve is very smooth. Lots of players struggled solving this variant and I've posted one (the easiest I could think of) solving path. You can have a look here: http://rohanrao91.blogspot.in/2014/07/beginners-contest-on-lmi.html

I'm glad to see 295 participants, though crossing 300 would've been nice :-|, but thanks a lot for participating and I hope you enjoyed.
Congrats to the top-3 Beginners: sworls (USA), anti-inequality (Turkey) and ViRa (India) and the top-3 Seasoners: Kota (Japan), Timothy (France) and deu (Japan).

Feels nice to finally conduct a Beginners Contest and hope to see many more contests and sudokus in future!

I find your explanation about the 1 in R8C4 quite confusing. I imagine it can be struggling to try to "solve" these 2 arrows independently. If you take care of both arrows together it becomes very easy: Considering that the maximum of the sum of both cells R9C23 is 4+5=9, then the sum of the three cells R7C45 and R8C4 has to be <9, hence must contain a 1, which can be placed only at R8C4.
There is even no need to write candidates ;)

I liked this sudoku very much, and I remember I explained this "technique" about taking care of several arrows together in a Swiss federation newsletter (...a bit sad that other swiss players taking part didn't solve this sudoku).

R9 C23 could be from 3/4/5 so other than 5 , 3/4 has 1 in their addition combination. which has to in one of the cells even if 5 is one of the cells.
so 1 has to be in one of the 4 cells(R7 C45 and R8 C34), which can only come at R8C4.

Since only single 1 comes in these 4 cells which will also provide other clue, that is R9 C23, one of this should contain 5.

Considering that the maximum of the sum of both cells R9C23 is 4+5=9, then the sum of the three cells R7C45 and R8C4 has to be <9, hence must contain a 1, which can be placed only at R8C4.
There is even no need to write candidates ;)

Yes, this is something even I missed. Thanks!

See you in London

Fred

Yes :-)

gaurav.kjain - 2014-07-29 10:13 PM

The way I got it was

R9 C23 could be from 3/4/5 so other than 5 , 3/4 has 1 in their addition combination. which has to in one of the cells even if 5 is one of the cells.
so 1 has to be in one of the 4 cells(R7 C45 and R8 C34), which can only come at R8C4.

Since only single 1 comes in these 4 cells which will also provide other clue, that is R9 C23, one of this should contain 5.

There are multiple ways of figuring out the bottom-left... but either ways, I think it does take a while to identify the opening, especially when you are solving under time-pressure!

Hi, Can you tell me when is this month's beginner's sudoku contest likely to be published ?

Since we're all headed for the World Championships, there's nothing planned as of now, and won't be for the near future. If something does get planned, it will be announced here. You can always practice the archived ones though.

In fact Sudoku Mahabharat which finished last week was replica of Beginners Sudoku Test with more Classic Puzzles and with Easy Sudoku Variations. May be from the next month onward we can see more tests being conducted at LMI.